Lost in: Siege

Siege from Weymouth, Western Mass were arguably one of the most influental bands for the first wave of American (and to a certain extend surely European) Grindcore and Deathmetal bands, and definetly coining for 90ies Powerviolence, although they were surely a Hardcore-Punk band.

But due to the fact that they were probably the fastest Hardcore band at that time, and had those really slow, mean breakdowns, they are often cited when it comes to the beginnings of extreme Metal and Grind. They were around from 1983 to '85, only released a six song demo and three songs on the infamous "Cleanse The Bacteria" compilation. All those tracks can be found on a compilation that was released the first time in 1998.

Like I said, the music's extremly fast, almost blast beat tempo, I mean there's not much missing, the lyrics are angry as fuck and nihilistic, and the overall feeling is comparable to the early Napalm Death or Discharge.

On youtube you can find some videos of Siege like this one:

I guess they all were shot at a school band competition or something, which explains the blank white room hahaha. Pretty weird but pretty cool. If you can't have enough of Siege live, there are also two live sets, one from '84 and one from '85, but don't expect too much. At the '84 set from Hartford, CT all you hear is noise and someone screaming his guts out in the back. The '85 show from Stamfort has a little bit better sound, but still you don't hear much of the music. But hey, it's Siege. Besides that I have found a short interview that originaly got released in Suburban Punk Zine. 

SIEGE from Suburban Punk #6, spring '84
A relatively new band on the local scene is Siege. Although they haven't done a Boston gig yet, this intense 4 piece have been making waves with their aggressive, gripping live shows in Western Mass. and Providence. They have a 6 song demo out now, done at Radiobeat in February. Siege's sound could be likened to a train going around a curve at top speed, about to derail but never quite going completely out of control and going off the track. Andy and I talked to Siege outside the Living Room following their gig at the Punk Festival. Siege consists of Screaming Kev Mahoney (vocals), Kurt (guitar), Henry (bass), and Rob Williams (drums).

SP: Let's start with a typical question--a short band history.
Rob: We've had this singer, Kev Mahoney, for about 6 months and that was the turning point for the band. I'd been jamming with the 2 guitarists, Kurt and Hank, for a period of about 2 1/2 years, which was shit until we got Mahoney and we auditioned him and knew he was our man.
SP: Where you guys from?
Rob: Weymouth and Braintree.
SP: Why haven't you played Boston yet?
Rob: We've tried, but they're unwilling to accept new bands in town. We're doing our best. $5 for 2 bands at the Channel is too much.
SP: Are you happy with the way the tape came out?
Rob: Very happy. Lou (Giordano) was extremely reasonable. He took a lot of time to make it sound good. We're very pleased with the outcome.
SP: "Grim Reaper" is a lot different from your other songs. Are you planning to do more songs like that in the future?
Kurt: We want to branch off a bit.
Kev: We're basically a thrash band. We're into power. That was somethig that started off experimental. We did it on the spur of the moment and it was so well received that we decided to attach it to each of our sets.
SP: And you played sax in the studio on it?
Kev: Yeah. It was sick. I played sax in a ska band for about a year and a half.
SP: What kind of message are you trying to put forth through your music?
Kurt: We're trying to save the world.
SP: A minor mission.
Rob: We think there a lot of atrocities in the world, a lot of bad shit and it looks pretty bleak, it's out of our hands. There's really nothing that can be done by you and I about nuclear war.
Kev: We like to speak our piece, nonetheless.
Rob: We're holding a mirror up to society. Anything that pisses us off.
Kev: We like singing about things we hate 'cause then we can channel the hate of the subject into the performance.
SP: Saying it is one thing, but doing something is another.
Kev: We're doing more than saying it...
SP: Do you feel ambitious enough to change things you hate?
Kev: Definitely. We're not just saying it. Every song is from our heart.
Hank: We see it happen and then we write it.
Kev: Yeah, like Kurt wrote a song, "Life Of Hate," after he was working on a job with all these bigots, hearing racial slurs all the time.
Rob: You hear a lot of bands say shit about what their political stance is and we're trying to breathe new life into it because, in some people's opinion, it's become run of the mill. We're trying to change that with high energy live performances. We're musicians before we're political activists.
SP: Why did you pick the name Siege?
Rob: It means attack. We came across it on a huge list. We sat around for 2 hours to think of the best name.
SP: What's your most memorable gig so far?
All: Tonight. Western Mass., too.
Kurt: I'd like to say the WMass scene is cool. I think a lot of Boston kids shouldn't stick their nose up at it.
SP: What are your future recording plans?
Kev: Maybe vinyl by the summer if we come up with some cash.
SP: What are your influences?
Kev: DRI, Discharge, Void, Black Flag.
SP: Anything else you want to add?
Rob: I want to say I enjoy Suburban Punk!
SP: Check's in the mail!